1. Field of the Invention
A thin, light-weight flexible orthopedic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Orthopedic devices which are made to order for a particular person are known in the art. These devices are generally, hand fitted by a podiatrist or other appropriate professional to conform to the shape and contour of the person's foot when said foot is in a corrected or neutral position.
Although prior art orthopedic devices have proven to be therapeutically useful, there are several drawbacks to the currently available devices.
The majority of prior art orthopedic devices are shaped and dimensioned to support the entire plantar aspect of the user's foot, despite the fact that generally it is only necessary to support the medial portion of the plantar aspect of the foot. Constructing the devices to include an essentially unnecessary lateral portion has added unneeded weight and height to the devices which makes them less comfortable to wear and more difficult to use with certain types of shoes, e.g. women's dress shoes.
Additionally, the afore-described construction of these devices requires the device to be unnecessarily bulky which causes the foot to be positioned too high up in the shoe and hence sometimes slip out of the shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,225,100 discloses an orthopedic device to be inserted into a shoe, the device being substantially U-shaped. The orthopedic device of '100 extends lengthwise from a segment for supporting a user's heel to a segment for supporting a user's arch. This device, due to its length cannot be used to correct any imbalance in a user's forefoot.